Naruto Short: An Unexpected Twist
by Lady Zemaria
Summary: Originally, Zemaria Senju was a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village in Naruto's age group; 12-13 years old. However, I decided the timeline for Orochimaru leaving and other past events did not add up with the age. So, I ended up changing her age to Itachi's; 18-19 years old. Here's one of many "side stories" for Zemaria's new and modified storylines. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1- An unexpected Twist

It was the third great ninja war in the Shinobi world. Hiruzen Sarutobi was the current Hokage in the Hidden Leaf Village. Two of the legendary Sannin were in the Hokage's office. They were Tsunade Senju and Orochimaru Hebi. A young girl who was approximately three and a half years old, stood between them as they argued back and forth. She was their subject of argument.

"She's far too young Orochimaru! Why would you even _suggest_ something so dangerous!?" Tsunade yelled at him.

"Tsunade, you know as well as I do, Zemaria is far stronger than any three year old in this village! Her power would be a great advantage in this war," he argued back.

Orochimaru had requested prior to the start of the argument to allow his and Tsunade's young daughter who was not even in the ninja academy to fight alongside them in the war. Of course, Tsunade being a concerned mother, would not allow this to happen. Orochimaru insisted she had enough strength and intelligence for her age to be beneficial to the war. Sarutobi closed his eyes in deep thought and to tune out the arguing parents. Zemaria stood quietly and fiddled with her fingers.

Sarutobi let out a heavy sigh, "Tsunade, Orochimaru, why don't I give Zemaria a choice? Let her decide what she'd rather do; stay here in the village or fight in the war."

They both stared at him. "You want to let a three year old decide for herself on a matter like this?" Tsunade asked confused.

He nodded, "Yes. If Orochimaru says she has a great amount of intelligence then she can make this decision on her own."

"But Lord Hokage, she's far too young to make such a decision!" Tsunade insisted.

"Hm..." he looked down at Zemaria, "What do you say? Will you stay here in the village, or go to the battlefield with your parents?"

Zemaria thought a moment, "I... I..." she shut her eyes tightly and blurted out, "I'm scared mother and father won't return! So- I... want to go with them."

Her eyes looked as though they'd express great sadness. Both Tsunade and Orochimaru stared at each other in silence. Then Orochimaru formed a satisfied smile on his face. Tsunade had been defeated. She looked away from him in utter distaste. Sarutobi allowed Zemaria to ultimately take Jiraiya's place for the team of Sannin.

Because it was an order from the Hokage, Tsunade had no choice but to accept that her only child could be accompanying her to the battlefield. Sarutobi dismissed them from his office and they immediately went home to get ready for their dangerous mission. Once they were ready, they set out for the land of waves. They were going to fight hidden mist ninja. As young as she was, Zemaria possessed great speed and beyond advanced chakra control.

She didn't know all too many jutsus but it hadn't been long since Orochimaru had sealed something special; something of great power inside of her. That power was the three-tailed beast Isobu. The three were making great progress. They traveled quite the distance in a short amount of time and Zemaria was easily able to keep up with her parents. They took limited number of breaks along the way.

Orochimaru scanned their surroundings as they drew closer to the border from the Leaf to the land of water, "So far, I don't sense any enemies around here."

Zemaria's ears perked and her head shifted slightly, "Father! There's a group of ninja three miles out at 45 degrees west." She pointed in the direction she mentioned.

Zemaria had quite the unique sensory skill. She could hear a person's heartbeat and in turn, identify the person it belonged to after encountering them. Orochimaru nodded to Tsunade and they setup a trap nearby. As the enemy drew closer, they readied themselves for battle. It only took ten minutes for them to show.

"Get ready," Tsunade said.

Once the trap activated, only a few managed to get through. A short lived battle followed the aftermath of the trap's effects settled and the area uttered a calm hush. The enemies were taken down. Zemaria took little damage. Tsunade healed whatever wounds they did acquire and they continued on their way.

On the battlefield, an intense battle was already underway by the time the three of them arrived. Tsunade and Orochimaru took on the most difficult looking shinobi. Zemaria swiftly glided along the shimmering surface of the water they fought on, effortlessly taking down enemy after enemy. It was as if she didn't have to think of what to do at all; a natural reaction. In no more than half an hour, she had killed without a second thought more than fifty enemy shinobi.

After a short while, she changed her appearance and linked with Isobu. A cloak of chakra covered her entire body in the shape of the three-tailed turtle beast. She threw beast bombs at groups of enemies and swished her tails at others, tossing them across the vast body of bloodied water. A large number of allies backed far away from her in a scared attempt to hold on to their own lives. They thought if they didn't... they'd be killed too.

Isobu's chakra limit has faded away and Zemaria changed back to her original form. The chakra disappeared. At that precise moment, an enemy managed to slip passed her defenses. She quickly tried to react appropriately but the ninja with one slick movement swiped his kunai upwards. It sliced right up the side of Zemaria's face barely missing her eye.

Zemaria staggered back slightly and covered her eye with one hand, "Ah!"

Orochimaru was the first to react, "Zemaria!"

The injury only fazed her for a moment before she regained sight of her priority; take town the enemy. As Orochimaru hurried to his daughter's side, Zemaria violently stabbed a sharp kunai deep into the ninja's throat. The reaction made Orochimaru's movements come to an abrupt halt. He realized she was just fine and could take care of herself. An enemy appeared behind him seizing the opportunity to take the Sannin by surprise while he was still distracted. He easily sensed his presence and killed him in one clean hit.

The battles raged on for several days. After almost two weeks, the enemy had fallen back. This was Orochimaru and his team's queue to heal up and return to the Hidden Leaf. For now, the Hidden Leaf shinobi had won the battle. Once they had returned to the village, they immediately reported in to the Hokage.

"So, Zemaria did quite well for her age on the battlefield did she?" Sarutobi asked impressed.

Tsunade nodded, "Yes. I didn't expect her to handle war as smoothly as she had."

Orochimaru snickered, "I told you she would be a valuable asset to the war."

Tsunade scoffed at him, "Is that supposed to be an 'I told you so' response to me?" She crossed her arms annoyed with him.

"Oh, don't be so sore at me Tsunade. I know potential when I see it is all. She _is_ our daughter so it's only natural she excel more than most would," he gloated.

"That's enough, both of you! You two act like a married couple. Zemaria will sit out future missions concerning the war. One was too many as it was. The elders of the council have already given me an earful after you three left about allowing such a young child to go to the battlefield," Hiruzen explained to them.

Both responded, "Yes Lord Hokage."

Once dismissed, all three decided it was best to rest at home. Orochimaru branched off in a different direction than Tsunade. Zemaria hesitated, unable to figure out which parent she should follow home. As smart as she was, she couldn't understand why her parents lived in two separate houses. Of course, the pair weren't together that way. They were merely teammates and comrades.

Neither of them had any love interest in the other. During this time of war, there was another ace team participating; team Minato. This team consisted of Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin Nohara with Minato Namikaze as teal leader. Minato adopted the nickname 'yellow flash of the Leaf' due to his incredibly fast speed and ability to instantly teleport anywhere so long as he has his special kunai on hand. The team had a growing reputation throughout the shinobi world.

Zemaria trained with Minato when he wasn't out on missions or fighting in the war. As time passed on, she grew stronger and stronger. Her speed increased exponentially. At the age of five, Orochimaru asked Minato, now the Hokage for a special request. Since the war's end, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya had been training Zemaria.

"What is it you wanted to request of me?" Minato asked.

"I'd like you to... observe and make a decision one Zemaria's skills. You know as well as I do that she's already reached the level of a Gennin. With her rapidly growing strength, she could be a Jounin before she's even a teenager," Orochimaru said.

Minato thought a moment, "I see. So you want me to evaluate her and make a decision on whether or not to simply make her a Gennin without her even attending the academy. Very well then. Since I did have a hand in training her for a short period of time, I would be a good choice with something like this."

Later that same day, Orochimaru and Minato met up with Zemaria at the training grounds. They created a multiple staged _test_ for her as a sort of cross between a graduation exam and the Chuunin exams. It would consist of tests that focused on physical stamina/strength, intellect, speed/evasion, and strategy. Orochimaru would be primarily in charge of most of the stages while Minato would help him with the speed/evasion part. Minato explained the rules and time limits for the exam to Zemaria.

The first stage was the physical stamina/strength exam. This one would be focused on mostly taijutsu; hand to hand combat and the time limit was for no longer than four hours. Of course, her opponent was to be her father; the one person she hadn't had a lot of experience fighting with using taijutsu. One of the rules was that only the open area could be used. Retreating into the cover of the trees was not allowed. However, it was okay to end up on the water area.

"The first part of the exam will now begin! Remember, you have a time limit of four hours. That should be enough for me to get a good idea of how well you can stand up against a strong opponent in a critical situation," Minato explained.

"I'm ready. And father, don't worry about holding back. I want you to fight me at full power," Zemaria replied.

Both Orochimaru and Zemaria readied themselves and assessed each other before deciding on how to start. Zemaria took a few steps to one side carefully calculating how she would attack. After a moment or two, they ran in opposite directions before charging at each other. They exchanged quite a good number of blows, both dodging one after another. It didn't take long for one of Orochimaru's hits to send Zemaria flying back.

She tried to recover but ultimately ended up slamming directly into a nearby tree. As she made contact with the three, she let out a pained grunt and slid down. Orochimaru gave her a minute to gather herself. Since this was simply a test, he had no need to be too brutal with her. Slowly, she leaned forward and staggered to her feet.

She wasn't going to let herself be beaten down so easily. Orochimaru charged at her once she was standing. The way they fought was as if they were dancing together. Minato was impressed simply by watching how coordinated their attacks were. It was like they already knew what the other was going to do.

 _Incredible. It's as though they can anticipate each other's movements. It's hard to believe Zemaria is only five years old. Her attacks are so flawless and smooth._ Minato thought.

After four hours, Zemaria was just barely still standing. Both of them panted in exhaustion. Even Orochimaru had been worn down so much his energy was running low. Minato congratulated Zemaria on withstanding four hours of taijutsu fighting. Orochimaru dropped to the ground onto his butt.

"Ungh. I'm getting too old for this kind of endurance," he let out a heavy sigh.

Minato laughed, " _You_ getting too old? That's certainly unusual for you to say!"

Orochimaru looked up at him, "Next time, _you_ can spar with her using only taijutsu for four straight hours."

"Well, lucky for you I decided there will be a break before we move on to the next stage of the exam. You can both rest for three hours. Sound fair?" He smiled.

They both nodded. Zemaria plopped herself on the ground and leaned against the nearest tree still trying to catch her breath. Orochimaru shifted around and laid down. It was unlike him to become exhausted to easily. Minato disappeared to search out some much needed 'fuel' for them to help re-energize them. He returned in no time with a bunch of food and drinks.

He handed each of them something to eat and a drink. Orochimaru sat up and Zemaria moseyed on over to be closer to her father. She was definitely a little daddy's girl all the way. Food in hand, she dropped to the ground and started eating. Orochimaru couldn't help but to laugh lightly at his daughter's quirky personality. She certainly didn't pick it up from him or Tsunade; maybe the first Hokage's personality got passed down to her somehow.

"Minato-Sensei, you're the best!" She exclaimed; rice bits stuck to her cheek.

Minato laughed happily, "I don't know about that!" He placed his hands on his hips.

Zemaria Smiled, "It's true. You brought food even though we didn't ask."

He placed a hand to the back of his head rubbing it lightly, "Well… I just thought you guys would need something to replenish that lost energy from your sparring match is all. It was nothing really."

Orochimaru closed his eyes, "You're a very modest person Lord Hokage."

They ate and talked for the three hours they had for resting. Once they were rested enough, Minato took Orochimaru's place. He had talked it over with him about switching out for the intellect exam. It was because he had a sudden idea for it; something he and Orochimaru knew about all too well. He was going to use the 'bell training' that he used for his team and Orochimaru went through with Hiruzen when he had his team with Tsunade and Jiraiya.

"Now, Orochimaru and I are going to switch out for the second stage," He explained.

"Switch out?" Zemaria asked.

Minato nodded, "Yes. There's something I'd like to have you do. I used this training on my team and your father had to do it when he was under the leadership of Lord Third." He held up a single bell. "Now, to be fair, this was supposed to test each Gennin to act as a team in order to get the bell. But since there's only you, it will focus more on using your intellect in order to get it."

Minato added that she could use any weapon and jutsu she desired in order to obtain the bell. He also told her to come at him as if to try and kill him; otherwise she would never get it. She nodded and he set the timer for another four hours. He would be able to really assess her intellect and how well she can manage to obtain an item. The clock started and Zemaria immediately went into hiding to think up a plan.

Minato smiled at her quick thinking; buying time in order to gather data on her target. He got to work on searching her out in order to prevent her from planning to deeply. Orochimaru followed to watch the whole thing play out. Zemaria in the meantime was already setting up quite the elaborate trap. It was convoluted and intricate so much so that it was approximately half a mile in diameter. There was one small spot that she made blatantly obvious on purpose. That one was the bait to set the rest of the trap off.

Now she had to lure him straight into the trap. Carefully navigating around, she listened for him in the woods. Her movements were slow but swift and completely silent. Ten minutes passed before she caught the sound of his heartbeat close by. She first created a clone to throw him off or at least try to. Next, she let him and the clone see each other. Minato suspected it was only a clone but also wanted to see how things would play out.

The clone smiled at him and ran off in the direction of the trap. Just in case, Zemaria had setup a backup trap as well. She sensed his heartbeat twice and picked up on one of them being a clone too. Armed with this knowledge, she quickly fled from her current location and headed straight for the backup trap. While the real Zemaria lead one Minato to the backup trap, the clone was almost at the first trap.

Zemaria's clone reached the first trap and disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared directly in the middle of the trap. She made a few hand signs once Minato was close enough and set off the first portion of the trap. It triggered a pit to open up under his feet. With a quick reaction, he avoided falling in but once he was planted on the ground again, the second portion of the trap was triggered. A barrage of kunai, shuriken, and kunai with paper bomb tags flew at him.

Minato dodged the barrage of ninja tools except for a single kunai which had pierced his right arm. _She setup a trap with multiple triggers. Clever._ He thought and removed the kunai from his arm.

Over with the real Zemaria, it appeared as though the Minato that followed her was actually the real one and the one with the clone was _his_ clone. The Minato clone poofed from being injured by the kunai. Zemaria's clone disappeared too. The release of either one's clones alerted them to what was up. Minato took the opportunity to actually attack Zemaria while she lead him to the backup trap. He used a fire style jutsu.

Zemaria reacted quickly and made a few hand signs, "Water style: water wall jutsu!"

A giant wall of water shielded her from the fire's affects. Minato flicked one of his special kunai so that it just barely missed her. Then he teleported behind her. Taken off guard due to his speed, Zemaria reflexively used her arms to guard herself. Minato shifted his body and attempted to side kick her but she moved her arms accordingly to accommodate his hit. The impact pushed her back slightly and she looked down to where the bell was attached to Minato's waist.

She focused her chakra to her forearm that was against Minato's leg and forced him away. Then she weaved hand signs again. "Fire style: fire ball jutsu!" She took one slight step back.

A giant ball of fire burst out from her mouth and raged forward toward Minato. He looked shocked and for a moment, didn't move. It didn't take long but he shook it off and managed to dodge it. However, the delay caused his Hokage cloak to take damage on the corner.

"That was a close one. A moment more and I would have been toast. Water style and fire style. It's rare that someone so young can possess more than one chakra nature; let alone use fire style like that," he observed. Suddenly, he realized something. _Wait, she used a water style jutsu without any body of water nearby. How is that possible?_

While he was deep in thought, Zemaria got close enough to him and swiped the bell right from his pants. Minato snapped back to reality and blinked in confusion. What just happened? He looked down and saw the bell was gone. When he looked at Zemaria, she giggled, held up the bell, and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I win sensei!" She happily announced.

"Huh? How did-? Wait, I- you…," He asked still confused.

"You should pay more attention to your enemy," she giggled again.

Minato sighed defeated, "Yeah, I should have known better than to let myself get distracted and drop my guard. Well, that completes the second stage and with an hour to spare too. Good job."

He walked close to her and gently patted her on the head and smiled. Orochimaru laughed at how Minato had been defeated by a five year old. He was having way too much fun watching all of this. The third stage was next. For this one, Minato and Orochimaru hid close by on opposite sides up in the trees while Zemaria was on ground level in between them. Both Orochimaru and Minato threw a slew of kunai and shuriken directly at Zemaria.

This was to test her agility and dodge/evasion skill. Of course, this wasn't anything new for Zemaria as it was how the Sannin trained her in this aspect. She was easily able to dodge every single kunai and shuriken they threw at her. She had passed the third stage. Minato decided that since she used both intellect and strategy in the previous stage, there was no need for a fourth stage for just strategy.

"Alright, I've made my decision," Minato said as he came out into the open.

Orochimaru did the same, "Oh? What have you decided?"

"I've decided to allow Zemaria to become a Gennin," he announced. "She's shown great skills beyond any other her age; even those who have gained early access to the academy. Therefore, she is capable of performing the duties of an official shinobi. With her skill level, it would be possible for her to clear missions as difficult as a B rank."

Minato knelt down to Zemaria's level, removed a ninja headband from his pouch, and handed it to her. She smiled and gingerly took it from his hand. After placing it against her forehead and tying it on, she flung herself forward and gave him a hug. He embraced her and Orochimaru smiled proudly knowing his daughter had such advanced skills. The only thing left was to place Zemaria on a team. Minato looked up at Orochimaru; an idea swirling in his head. He'd have Zemaria's own father lead her for the time being. It would have been a hit or miss placing a five year old on a team with older Gennin.

The basic purpose of a team is to work together as one to successfully complete missions. If the team couldn't get along, the mission would be a failure and that was how people end up getting hurt. Orochimaru gave Minato a confused look. He looked like he was plotting something.

"What are you thinking Lord Hokage?" He finally asked him.

"I was thinking I could place Zemaria under your leadership temporarily. She's far too young to be placed on a team with older Gennin. You know someone would give her an unnecessary hard time about her age and being a shinobi. Plus, it will be good for her to have not just her father as her sensei but also a Sannin," he answered.

Orochimaru placed a curled hand to his lower lip, "Hm… I suppose that makes sense. Then when she's old enough, you'll be placing her in a full team?"

He nodded, "That's the plan at least. If push comes to shove, I'll find two fresh Gennin or two that have at least a year or so experience depending on each person's skill levels and give them to you to train. That way you have a full team."

"One is fine, but two others? I'm not really fond of kids except my own of course," Orochimaru told him; hiding the fact he really didn't mind kids at all.

Minato laughed lightly, "Admit it! You like kids and you know it." He folded his arms.

Orochimaru also laughed and smiled. Minato had seen right through him. It was a little known fact that Orochimaru actually disliked Minato simply because the third Hokage picked him to take over as Hokage; a title Orochimaru wanted himself. Sarutobi felt Orochimaru would not have been right for the role and responsibility of Hokage which was why he had chosen Minato instead. However, for the sake of Zemaria and the fact she looked up to Minato, Orochimaru learned to tolerate his presence. After a short silence, Orochimaru and Zemaria went home and Minato went back to his unattended work at his office.

It didn't take too long before Minato summoned Orochimaru and Zemaria to give them their first mission together. Only a week had passed by this time and the mission was B ranked. They had to track down a group of rogue bandits and their Leaf village rogue leader. The leader was an S class criminal and extremely dangerous. Orochimaru debated at first. A B rank mission is one thing for a five year old's first mission as a shinobi, but to add in taking down an S class rogue was another. He knew _he_ would be just fine but he'd have to also keep an eye on Zemaria if they encountered the bandits and the leader in the same place.

"Zemaria did just fine during the war. I believe in her to be successful with this mission. Her unique skills will be an asset with it," Minato told him.

Orochimaru sighed, "Alright. Fine. We'll go on this mission."

Minato dismissed them and they left to gather a few items before heading out of the village. They traveled for several days before reaching the first small village that had felt the sting of the bandits. Buildings were destroyed, small fires still flickered in anger on canapés above abandoned shops. Zemaria cautiously scouted around the village for any signs of life. It seemed as though very few villagers had survived the attack. The ones that came out of their secure hiding spots had minor injuries.

Zemaria offered to treat their wounds for them. She asked if they could tell her anything about the ones who attacked their village and that she and her father were sent to the area from the Hidden Leaf village to track down the bandits and take care of them. While she was doing that, Orochimaru took care of others who were injured in another part of the village. They gathered enough information to know that the group of bandits had left right after their rampage through the village and headed in the north eastern direction. The pair took off in the direction they were told the bandits headed after the survivors were taken care of.

As they traveled along, Zemaria's ears picked up foreign heartbeats and they were relatively close by. She alerted her father and they stopped. If it were the bandits and their leader, they'd take them on then and there. It's not like the pair were exactly weak or anything like that. The group of bandits made their attack. Zemaria didn't waist any time taking down the enemy like usual.

"Father!" She blocked one attack.

"Right," he quickly assisted her.

There were eight bandits in total and together, Orochimaru and Zemaria took them all down. The rogue leader finally showed his face at that point. His whole group of underlings were taken down in such a short amount of time. He couldn't believe his eyes; a kid took down highly skilled bandits but then again, she did have help from one of the Legendary Sannin of the Hidden Leaf village. Zemaria and Orochimaru readied themselves for the real fight.

"Hm… so, my crew was taken down by one of the Sannin of the Leaf and his twin?" The rogue observed.

"What did you just say?" Zemaria's chakra flowed out of her in rage.

Orochimaru looked at her, "Well, that's not good."

Zemaria weaved hand signs Orochimaru didn't recognize the jutsu to, "Forbidden art: four elemental dragons!"

"Huh!?" The rogue's eyes widened and he took a step back.

Four dragons appeared together: Earth, fire, water, and lightning. Each attacked accordingly. First the water dragon, next the lightning dragon. After those two it was earth and then fire. All four hit their mark. The rogue was flung back and slammed against a nearby tree. Zemaria teleported directly in front of him and slit his throat with her claws.

Orochimaru stood amazed. He had no idea his daughter knew a forbidden jutsu like that. It was odd for her to use _any_ forbidden jutsu to begin with. In the end, their mission was completed. They found the bandits and took care of the rogue ninja. He calmed her down and they started back to the Leaf village.

Once back in the Leaf, they reported in to Minato. Orochimaru explained that they crossed paths with the bandits and after they were taken care of, the rogue had shown his face. He requested that Zemaria be dismissed as he needed to talk to the Hokage alone. Minato nodded and Zemaria left the room and headed back home.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Minato asked.

"It's about Zemaria. She showed great potential and skill during the mission, however, I'm a bit concerned where her actions are concerned," he explained.

"Oh? What do you mean?" Minato looked confused.

Orochimaru paused a moment, "She used a forbidden jutsu on the rogue ninja and took him down with one move. After using the jutsu, she didn't hesitate to finish him off by slicing his throat open."

Minato gasped in shock, "She what!? Why would she behave in such a manner?"

"It was because of what the ninja said. He referred to her as my 'twin' and if someone says something like that about her; stating such an obvious thing that she looks identical to me, it really sets her off," he said.

"Note to self: don't ever comment on her looking like her father…," Minato noted. "All I can really do is allow her to continue with missions as they come in. However, at some point I'll consider placing her in the Anbu Black Ops. That may help her channel those types of outlandish responses and she won't be around you so no one will have a reason to question her appearance. Unless of course, the enemy knows who you are and what you look like."

Orochimaru nodded, "Very well then. I'll be on my way. That was my only concern with her."

With that, he left the room. Minato interlocked his fingers and thought about the conversation he just had. It was very concerning to him how Zemaria behaved on the mission. He too hadn't known her to be able to use forbidden jutsu. The next day, Zemaria went to see her father. He had been working on something new and she wanted to see what it was.

When she walked into the room he was in, he was holding a syringe in his hand. She made her way over to him to see what it was. "What's that father?" She asked.

"Hm?" He said and turned around. "Oh, this is what I had been working on before. I just finished it. Would you care to be the test subject for it? I know how much you enjoy being my guinea pig." He smiled.

Zemaria shrugged a shoulder, "Sure, why not?"

Orochimaru injected her with the mixture into her neck. She let out a light gasp and her eyes changed; the left became a Sharingan and the right a Rinnegan. Her body overloaded with the new power and she dropped to the ground in pain. Orochimaru knelt down beside her to assess the situation. He then got up and went to grab a jar that contained the eyes of many different snakes. He took the jar over to Zemaria and knelt beside her again.

"Try not to move," he told her.

Unscrewing the top for the jar, he took out one eye. Then he removed one of Zemaria's eyes and replaced it with the one from the jar. He did the same with the other eye as well; replacing it with an eye from the jar. After her eyes were replaced, the right eye reverted back to the Rinnegan while the left eye remained that of a snake's. As it were, her own original eyes weren't strong enough to handle the power of either Kekkei Genkai. With the replacement eyes, however, they adjusted much better.

"Interesting. Your original eyes failed to accept the serum but the replacements have taken to it just fine. Now I'll have to train you how to use your new eyes," he laughed under his breath with a smile on his face.

It felt weird to Zemaria to have her right eye as the Rinnegan since it doesn't ever technically deactivate. In time though, she would learn to get used to it. There was a lot she needed to learn about the different techniques that come with either Kekkei Genkai. Orochimaru had her start training immediately. It wasn't as though they had a mission at the time so it worked out perfectly.

He started out with getting her education on how either one worked and their known techniques. Once she was educated in this, he could move on to having her perform the minor techniques; ones that wouldn't affect the state of the village or surrounding area. A couple of weeks passed between missions and training. Zemaria was pleased with her new abilities. She learned quickly how to use them in battle. Orochimaru was impressed with her improved skills and strength.

The Leaf Village faced an incredible danger one year later; the rampage of the nine-tailed fox spirit Kurama. At this time, Minato's wife Kushina had just given birth to their newborn son Naruto Uzumaki. A masked man however, intervened and used Kushina's weakened state and the weakened seal for the nine-tails to destroy the village. Kurama rampaged throughout the village taking down all of the shinobi fighting to keep it at bay. Minato quickly took back his abducted baby and took him to safety. He then put his focus on Kushina's safety and stopping the nine-tails.

"Your battle is with me!" The masked man interfered.

"Why would you do something like this? What do you gain from it?" He asked him infuriated.

The masked man simply laughed and made his move. Minato easily got around him and went on to focus on sealing the nine-tails once more. When he reached Kurama, Zemaria was close by. She unfortunately had ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Minato quickly got her out of harms way and disappeared to take care of the fox. Kushina was nearby and attempted to use the last bit of her strength to restrain the fox with her special chakra chains jutsu.

Naruto had been moved in order to perform the sealing jutsu. As Minato started to weave the signs for it, Kurama tried to attack Naruto and pierce him with his claw. Both Minato and Kushina acted instinctively in order to protect their child. However, Zemaria appeared first. Kurama's claw pierced right through her and she used every ounce of her chakra to stop his advance. Minato stood in a shocked horror. Why? Why would she do something so stupid!?

"M- Minato-Sensei…," she coughed up a massive amount of blood.

"Zemaria! Wh- why would you-!?" Minato's eyes filled with tears.

With the last bit of her chakra, she weaved almost identical hand signs as Minato was trying to do. The nine-tails began to split in two; one half of his chakra surrounded Zemaria and entered her body while the other half entered Naruto's. Zemaria dropped to her knees barely conscious at this point and coughed up even more blood. It was too late to save Kushina, but at least she was able to save Minato. Now Naruto wouldn't have to be alone with the burden of having the nine-tails inside of him and shunned by the villagers.

The barrier containing the area the fox was in disappeared. Lord third had been close by at the time and hurried over to see what had happened. There were several units of Anbu with him when they saw Minato kneeling over Zemaria with a massive hole in her stomach area. The third stopped short knowing that if Orochimaru had found out his only child was on the brink of death, he would not be happy at all.

"...Sensei- I… I'm sorry," she mustered out before closing her eyes.

"Lord Hokage, what happened here?" Sarutobi asked unable to move.

Minato was shaking, "She- she intervened when Kushina and I were willing to sacrifice ourselves for the safety of our son. Then she split the nine-tails and sealed the Yin half inside herself and the Yang half inside of Naruto."

A medical unit arrived and quickly worked on sealing the wound to stop the bleeding. That way, Zemaria would at least have a fighting chance. For the first time as Hokage, Minato didn't know what to do. His student, a shinobi of the hidden leaf, and someone he had sworn to protect was in danger of dying because of him; because she wanted to save his child from being orphaned. She wanted to give him a chance to be a father instead of dying to keep the child alive. Once Zemaria was taken to the hospital, her parents caught wind of what happened and rushed to the hospital.

Minato slowly picked himself up to his feet with Naruto cradled in his arms. The Anbu gently picked Kushina's body up and carried her to the hospital in preparation for her funeral. Minato took Naruto to the hospital to be looked over and cared for as he would have been had the nine-tails not been forced out of his wife. A few hours had passed before Zemaria was moved to a recovery room. Minato sat at her bedside still upset about what had happened. Orochimaru entered her room and upon seeing Minato, instinctively clocked him straight in the face.

Minato flew back and hit the wall. "How dare you!?" He shouted at him.

"Orochimaru! Stop it!" Tsunade held him back.

"It's _his_ fault! If Zemaria hadn't gotten so attached to him, she never would have stepped in like that!" Orochimaru was infuriated.

Minato wiped the blood from his lip and stood up, "I didn't ask her to save me! I, along with Kushina were prepared to die in order to protect our son! She may not be my daughter, but I'm also greatly upset about all of this! I helped train her and… she's always been there smiling and trying to make me laugh if something was bothering me." He looked away.

The tension just barely calmed down. Orochimaru took his focus off of Minato and put it all on his daughter. She was the only one he had after all. For almost two weeks Zemaria had been unconscious until she finally started to open her eyes. When she looked to one side, she saw a sleeping Minato resting over her bedside. She strained to lift her arm and placed her hand gingerly atop of his head and smiled.

"...Sensei…," she whispered.

He woke up and lifted his head slowly, "Z- Zemaria? You're- awake?"

"I'm sorry if I worried you and my parents. It's just- you got me out of harms way but I- wanted to repay you for that," she told him.

His relieved face turned stern, "Well… don't do it again, you hear me?"

She couldn't help but giggle lightly, "Yes, Sensei. I hear you loud and clear."

After two years, Orochimaru gained two new Gennin to make his team full. One of them was Itachi Uchiha. This would prove however, to be a grave mistake on Minato's part. Orochimaru had wanted the Sharingan for years and now he had the most talented Uchiha as part of his team. The thing was though, Itachi wasn't stupid. He instinctively knew that Orochimaru was up to no good. This arrangement was wonderful for Zemaria though.

She had a thing for Itachi. He was cute, talented, smart, and mysterious. Itachi was friends with Zemaria for several years so it was good they were on the same team together. In terms of teamwork, they worked well with each other. The success rate of missions with Orochimaru's team skyrocketed having Itachi on the team. Minato noticed this instantly. A year later, Orochimaru recommended his team of Gennin for the Chuunin Exams.

Zemaria and the team went to the academy building for the first stage of the exam; the written test. The written test consisted of impossible to answer questions. In the end, Itachi and his teammates managed to pass. The second exam went smoothly as well. They were able to reach the tower in the Forest of Death in a record amount of time and with barely any effort. There was a preliminary round after the second stage due to the large number of teams that had passed it.

The only ones from Itachi's team that passed were himself and Zemaria. To prepare for the final stage, the Hokage gave the ninja that passed one month to prepare themselves. The first battle was going to be Zemaria against a Hidden Mist Ninja. Of course, Orochimaru was going to train his young and talented daughter. Itachi's father would help him train whenever he could. Otherwise, he'd be on his own for training.

Zemaria panted, "I… think I used the Sharingan too much." She dropped to her knees out of breath.

Orochimaru walked over to her, "Stand up. You need to withstand Itachi's stamina in order to be able to even come close to his skill level. You know he'll be able to win his match."

"I'm… sorry father. I- I can do this," she stood up.

The time finally came; the third stage of the Chuunin exams. Zemaria won her battle and Itachi won his. The last battle was the one all of the honorable guests were anticipating; a fight between an Uchiha and a Senju. This hadn't happened since the on going fighting of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Itachi and Zemaria stayed on the ground while the rest of the competitors made their way up to the viewing area. The battle began. Neither of them moved at first. They were observing the other trying to figure out who was going to make the first move and how.

"Hm…," Itachi sighed. _I've seen a lot of her moves while on missions with her as well as when we did some training together. But during the month we had before this to train, she had Orochimaru-Sensei training her. What new tricks will she bring out?_

Both of them stared at each other; kunai and shuriken lining the spaces between their fingers. After almost three minutes, they ran in opposite directions strategically. Carefully, they threw a specific number of kunai and shuriken at each other. Both dodged each one. They entered into a taijutsu sparring match. This was their way of testing the other's strength before getting serious with each other.

They seemed to be matched even in taijutsu. It was time for them to get serious now. Itachi and Zemaria both activated their Sharingan and Zemaria fully activated the Rinnegan. Seeing a Senju with such eyes was extremely unusual. After several more attacks, they both stopped moving. They had simultaneously activated the Tsukuyomi and were trapped in each other's genjutsu battle. The spectators had no idea what was going on. They had randomly stopped moving and attacking each other.

There were murmurs from the spectators while Fugaku; Itachi's father frowned at the idea of a non-Uchiha possessing even one Sharingan eye. He knew her eyes were only a result of Orochimaru's experimenting. The battle inside of the Tsukuyomi lasted a mere five minutes in reality's time before one of Zemaria's carefully placed shadow clones interrupted it. The physical battle continued on. Itachi and Zemaria both executed a flawless fire ball. Itachi's was overpowering Zemaria's until she activated the Mangekyou; the next level to the Sharingan.

She countered his fire ball with Amaterasu; the black flames which couldn't be extinguished. Fugaku was taken back seeing her using that jutsu and even activating the Mangekyou to begin with. What was Orochimaru's goal coming up with a way for her to have the Sharingan and Rinnegan? Itachi managed to avoid the affects of the Amaterasu and attacked from Zemaria's left side. Quickly shifting herself, she used the almighty push; a technique for the Rinnegan. Itachi flew back and hit the wall creating a deep indentation.

He gathered himself with just enough time to react to the oncoming water dragon Zemaria sent in his direction. It was one jutsu after another. Zemaria was able to use two chakra natures; fire and water. Their battle lasted a stunning twenty minutes before they stood face to face only inches from each other. Exhausted, they exchanged weak punches before Zemaria dropped to her knees unable to even stand. Her body tilted forward no longer capable of fighting.

The proctor called it, "Zemaria is unable to battle. The winner of the first match is Itachi Uchiha!"

"I- over used my Sharingan…," she muttered and forced herself to stand up.

The spectators gasped. Zemaria placed a hand on Itachi's shoulder and smiled. He smiled back and extended his hand out as a sign of peace. They interlocked two fingers and he helped her out of the stadium. She might not have won the battle but she was pleased that she was able to have such a thrilling fight with her friend and teammate. Everyone watching seemed confused.

Zemaria and Itachi went straight to the infirmary. They were both exhausted and low on chakra. Fugaku got up from his seat and left for the infirmary to check on Itachi while Orochimaru had the same idea to check on Zemaria. Fugaku didn't look too pleased to see Orochimaru but kept his attention on his son. Orochimaru went straight over to Zemaria to see how she was holding up.

"Well, you didn't win the match but you showed great strength. You possessed the abilities and qualities of a Chuunin. Now let's see if those in charge will see it the same way," Orochimaru told her.

"Thank you father. Your words mean a lot to me. Did- did I make you proud of me?" She asked.

He nodded, "Yes. I'm very proud of you."

"You fought well, Itachi and showed great sportsmanship. Even though your opponent lost, you showed that there was no bad blood between you two," Fugaku said.

Itachi responded, "Zemaria and I are friends. After battling with her like this, I can say now that I acknowledge her strength."

Now that the Chuunin exams were over, Itachi, Zemaria, and a few others were summoned to the Hokage's office. This could mean only one thing; they were there to be promoted to the rank of Chuunin. It had only been a couple of days before they were summoned there in order to give the competitors some time to recover from their battles.

"I'd like to congratulate all of you here. I'm sure you know why I've summoned you," Minato started.

"We've been acknowledged by our superiors as having the skill sets needed to become Chuunin," Itachi finished for him.

Minato nodded, "That's right. All of you possess the abilities and qualities for being Chuunin; leaders and teachers to others."

He handed each one of them a Chuunin vest. Zemaria was thrilled. She was a Chuunin. And of course, she was happy about Itachi becoming one too.


	2. Chapter 2- Light & Dark

p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato dismissed everyone. Orochimaru asked Zemaria to meet him at the training ground they always went to. He had something special for her as a congratulations on making Chuunin. When Zemaria arrived at the training ground, she saw her father leaning against one of the training posts. She walked over to him curious to know what it was that he had for her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""So... what is it you wanted to give me father?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Getting straight to business are we?" He chuckled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm curious is all," she said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He smiled and used his summoning technique. A very large snake appeared behind him holding a large scroll in its mouth. Zemaria marveled at the huge serpent before her. She knew her father summoned snakes but she'd never actually seen them before. This was something fascinating to her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Whoa...," she stared in awe./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm going to teach you the summoning jutsu. That is my gift to you to congratulate you on becoming a Chuunin," he told her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Her eyes widened, "You're really going to teach me the summoning?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He took the scroll from the snake, "Yes. You have more than enough chakra to successfully perform it. Not that you didn't before. I just wanted to wait for the right time to teach it to you and what better time than after becoming a Chuunin?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He opened the scroll and placed it on the ground. There written on the paper was Orochimaru's name of course. He instructed her to sign her name in blood and imprint each finger under it. Then she was to hold out her dominant arm. She did as he told her to. As she held out her arm, the snake used one of its top and bottom fangs to gently pierce her at the wrist. Zemaria flinched for a second but it didn't last very long. A black design appeared on her forearm./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You now bear the mark of the summoning. To perform it simply weave the proper hand signs and run a streak of your own blood down that mark," he said showing her the signs. "Now you try it."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She weaved the hand signs and ran a streak of blood down the mark, "Summoning jutsu!" She slammed her hand onto the ground./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"A huge snake appeared right under her. Not only was it a snake, it was Manda the leader of the snakes. Manda was the type who really hated Orochimaru. It was because he never showed him any respect and always ordered him around like it was nothing. So when he randomly appeared he wasn't too thrilled about it./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""What'sss the meaning of thiss Orochimaru? Why did you Ssummon me?" He asked irritated./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Eh- I didn't," his eyes shifted up towards Zemaria./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria sat down indian style on Manda's head, "Did I overdo it? Wow. You're purple! I love purple. Amazing! And you're so cute too!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hm!? What's thiss?" Manda questioned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He took his tail and wrapped it around Zemaria picking her off his head. She was now at eye level with him... and upside down somehow. Zemaria smiled at him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Well now! You look identical to Orochimaru," he observed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I wouldn't have said that if I were you Manda," Orochimaru warned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""What iss sshe going to do? Hm?" He asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria's chakra became enraged and flowed out of her, "What did you just say!?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She was tempted to set him straight but decided not to. She liked this snake for he was purple and cute. Orochimaru told her to release the jutsu before something happened that she couldn't control. Manda didn't like to listen to anyone. She released the jutsu and Manda disappeared./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm going to get an earful from him later," he commented./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Sorry, father," Zemaria apologized./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He shook his head, "It's not your fault. I didn't expect you to summon him."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"After that, the pair went home. Two years passed by. Zemaria had turned ten and Minato was kept up to date on her behavior on missions by Orochimaru. It didn't seem like it was getting much better. He decided it was time to put her in the Anbu Black Ops to help channel that behavior./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He summoned her to his office. At the same time, Orochimaru had become heavily involved in making several shinobi 'disappear' from the village never to be seen again. Zemaria entered the Hokage's office wondering what he could have possibly summoned her for./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""So... what's this about Lord Hokage?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Your father has been keeping me in the loop on some of your behavior during your missions. How you go overboard quite often," he started out./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Oh...," she said simply./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato sighed, "I thought it would be best if you were to join the Anbu Black Ops. That way you can properly channel this behavior. It seems as though when you're on missions you go into a sort of em style="box-sizing: border-box;"kill mode/em."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria seemed surprised, "em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Me/em an Anbu?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I know it will be different for you but it's likely the best option for you. You'll be placed under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake. You had already met him when I had you on one of our missions before I became the Hokage," Minato mentioned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria thought a moment, "Kakashi..." Her eyes widened, "I remember. He made a big stink about me going on the mission with you guys because I wasn't even a Gennin yet."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato laughed, "You certainly proved him wrong, didn't you? In any case, I want you to report to the Anbu building and meet with him. I'll have a mission ready by the time everything is done and taken care of."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Yes, Sensei," Zemaria said feeling defeated./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He dismissed her and she went straight to the Anbu building. She walked over to the front counter where an Anbu was behind it and asked for a uniform added that the Hokage sent her. The Anbu observed her height and body type before walking off and looking for the appropriate size. He came back and place the uniform and weapon on the counter. Zemaria scooped up the uniform and was told that the locker room was unisex and to go change./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"As Zemaria walked inside the locker room, everyone went quiet. They all stared at her in an awkward silence. Kakashi recognized Zemaria instantly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Oh no. Lord Hokage, what were you thinking putting her in the Anbu Black Ops? /emHe thought./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Kakashi, the Hokage has placed me in your unit under your leadership," she announced./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Why do I get the feeling that this won't end well?" He sighed. "Get changed. I'm sure the Hokage already has a mission planned for us."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria nodded and wandered off to a more secluded area of the room to change. Most of the Anbu present were much older; late teens and early twenties. She was the only one who was ten years old. It didn't take her long to get changed. She went back over to where Kakashi and the others were./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi had been right, they were immediately summoned to the Hokage's office. He explained their mission and that it required at least six people. They set out right away. Things seemed to be fine between Kakashi and Zemaria so far. They didn't argue or butt heads at all. The place they had to travel to was the land of lightning./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"There was trouble in a small village there. Apparently, there was an internal war going on between the leader of the village and those who wished he were dead. The person causing trouble was a former Leaf shinobi. He had left the village and abandoned the way of the ninja. The Hokage instructed them to try and capture him; not kill him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"For Zemaria, this was somewhat difficult to do. She was more of the 'kill first, capture later' type of person. To get to the land of Lightning, it would take several days; almost an entire week. The journey started out with a strange silence between most of the unit. It was likely, none of them wanted to comment on how young their newest member was or how it was possible she could even match their strength. Although, some of them knew about her saving the Hokage four years ago during the nine-tails attack and how she also split the fox in half and sealed it away./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Knowing that, those members were a bit scared of her. It didn't take too long to cross the border for the land of fire. As the sun started to set, Kakashi found a good spot and told everyone to rest. They would need all of their strength for when they arrived at the village. Zemaria requested she take the first shift to keep watch just in case any hostile shinobi happened by./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I take it you're a night owl," Kakashi observed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""...I'm a snake. Snakes are nocturnal," she noted to him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi just stared at her. After a few moments, he decided to get some rest. It was a big deal to him to leave her alone like that. He didn't fully trust her to not do something reckless. Zemaria got up after she determined Kakashi was in a deep sleep. She felt like taking a short walk. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Kakashi to realize she wandered off./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria shifted her head slightly, "Hm. That didn't take very long."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi folded his arms, "What are you doing, wandering off like this?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I needed a quieter spot to think. There were too many distractions," she commented./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Distractions? The area is so quiet even em style="box-sizing: border-box;"I/em can hear myself think," he told her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She laughed, "em style="box-sizing: border-box;"You/em aren't a sensory type like I am. You might have sensory skills but like like what I have. Even right now, you're very distracting to me."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He rubbed a hand along the back of his head, "I know the ladies can't resist me but-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Don't flatter yourself. It's not your outer appearance that's distracting," she said slightly irritated./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The tension between them started to grow more intense. Things went silent and the wind blew slightly through their hair./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Your heartbeat," she finally spoke./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""What?" He asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She turned to face him, "It's your heartbeat that's distracting. You may not hear it as clearly, but my sensory skill is that I can hear a person's heartbeat up to four miles away."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"This kid... she has some nerve acting like this towards her superior. /emKakashi looked up at the sky. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Minato-Sensei... what /emem style="box-sizing: border-box;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"were/span/emem style="box-sizing: border-box;" you thinking putting her in my unit?/em/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He let out a sigh, stuck his hands in his pockets, and walked away. There was just something about her that reminded him of himself in a way. She wasn't overly energetic and she had a sort of darker aura to her. He started to suspect that Minato put him in charge of her to try and help her stay on a better path and not turn into her father. When morning came, the unit set off once more and with each passing hour, they came closer and closer to the village. Along the way, Zemaria's ears perked and she jumped from the tree and ran off from the unit./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Zemaria!" Kakashi called./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She didn't listen; only kept going on in another direction. Kakashi groaned and signaled for everyone else to go after her. Zemaria had heard an unfamiliar heartbeat that sounded a bit hostile as well as another three heartbeats that sounded as though they were in panic. When she reached where the four people were, one of them was the ninja they were en route to finding. The three panicked heartbeats belonged to three shinobi who appeared to be from the Hidden Cloud village./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Well what have we here?" The ninja asked seeing Zemaria. "You're pretty short for an Anbu."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Size doesn't matter when you have the ability to kill before the target realizes they're dead," she commented./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi finally caught up, "Don't go off like that!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""More of you?" He questioned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Huh? That's- that's the ninja we were told to find," Kakashi said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He remarked, "Oh, you were looking for me eh?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The first Cloud ninja remarked, "We don't need help from Leaf Anbu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Before anyone could argue, Zemaria attacked the Leaf ninja. The two engaged in a fierce battle. Zemaria ignored the interference brought on by the Cloud ninja. Kakashi had no choice but to keep them away from Zemaria's battle. He instructed his unit to keep the Cloud ninja distracted. This wasn't supposed to happen this way./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria seemed to be able to hold her own considering the ninja was at a Jounin level. She wasn't even using her Sharingan or Rinnegan. Their kunai and shuriken clashed and clanked against each other. She dodged almost every one of his attacked save for one or two that had come from her blind spots. In the end, she had him on his knees and out of breath./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She was about to deliver a final blow that would have killed him when Kakashi stopped her. The other Anbu retrained the ninja. Zemaria stared up at Kakashi from behind her mask. Her eyes seemed almost emotionless. He shook his head at her to stand down. The three Cloud ninja weren't happy at all about the Leaf Anbu interfering but there was nothing they could do./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The captured ninja used to belong to the Leaf village and they had every right to take him back. With that, the Cloud ninja left and headed back to their village. Kakashi and the rest of the unit escorted the former Leaf Shinobi back to the village. After reporting in to the Hokage, Kakashi had a few words with Zemaria about following orders. He wasn't happy about her performance during her first mission as an Anbu./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I know Sensei...," she said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Don't let it happen again. If we're not instructed to take out the target, we em style="box-sizing: border-box;"don't/em take out the target. Missions aren't just focused on killing. Who's been allowing this behavior to go on like this?" He lectured./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Well... my dad was my Sensei since I was five and I went on a lot of missions with him," she explained. "But from what Minato-Sensei told me, father expressed great concern to my behavior."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi let out a sigh, "And yet you continued like that anyway? He didn't try to correct this?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria shook her head. This was the first time anyone had ever lectured her like this. Orochimaru never said anything directly to her about how she behaved during missions with him. She wondered if he secretly encouraged it. Kakashi shook his head in disappointment. He just couldn't believe that someone so young could be so disobedient towards someone older./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"A month went by and Zemaria gradually learned to restrain herself when a mission called for capturing someone and not killing them. But, the listening to the captain didn't last. The third Hokage finally had proof that Orochimaru had been using the villagers and Shinobi in his experiments and sacrificing them for his own purposes. Sarutobi was going to put a stop to him. He gathered a group of Anbu and tracked him down to one of his hideouts./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The team included Kakashi and Zemaria. However, Zemaria wasn't told exactly what the mission entailed. Minato felt that if she knew, she'd do something so reckless it would ruin her as a Shinobi. When Orochimaru escaped from the hideout right passed Sarutobi, he was stopped by Kakashi. They engaged in a short battle./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Oh, I see. You have a Sharingan," Orochimaru chuckled. "I'd rather have the real thing though."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi gasped, "Why you-!?" He was about to attack once more when Zemaria turned on him. "Zemaria!? What do you think you're doing?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm sorry Sensei, but he's my father. I won't allow you to hurt him," she said defiantly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You know what will happen if you protect him! You'll be branded as a rogue ninja!" He tried to stop her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria and Kakashi engaged in a battle. Orochimaru had been injured during his fight with Kakashi but escaped passed him as quickly as he could. To him, having a child who would ultimately die for him paid off. He had nurtured her until it was programmed into her brain to protect and serve him and even follow him to the ends of the Earth. Meanwhile, Kakashi had no real intention to hurt Zemaria but she wasn't giving him much choice./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Their battle was fierce as well as destructive. The terrain changed and kept changing as the battle raged on between the two. After stalling Kakashi for almost a half an hour, the fight finally came to an end. Zemaria charged up one final attack and ran towards him. Unfortunately, Kakashi had no other choice but to use his chidori jutsu on her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"In order to lessen the damage though, he aimed around her vital spots. Panting, he landed the attack and his hand impaled her straight through her mid section. Zemaria's eyes widened in shock and she coughed up a fair amount of blood. Kakashi yanked his hand out of her still panting lightly. Zemaria's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she dropped to her knees./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi started to slowly walk away, "I'm sorry it has to be this way. You had great potential to becoming an amazing Shinobi."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria struggled to pick herself up, "...Father, forgive- me."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hm?" Kakashi turned slightly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria staggered off in the direction Orochimaru had ran off in. She eventually caught up to him and used a special jutsu was originally developed to be used by medical ninja. It was designed to help heal both the user and the second person involved. She gently placed her hand against his throat and activated the jutsu. His wound stopped bleeding and hers started to heal as well./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Don't follow me Zemaria," Orochimaru randomly said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""But- father-," she started./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He shook his head, "No buts! You're not coming with me!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He knocked her out and ran off. Something inside of him wanted her to have a better life than to become a rogue like he would. She didn't do anything wrong like he had. Orochimaru disappeared from the land of fire. Kakashi, the team of Anbu, and Sarutobi found Zemaria unconscious and Orochimaru gone. Sarutobi instructed Kakashi to take her to the hospital./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Lord third-," he argued./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""This is non-negotiable. Zemaria has always been attached to her father at the hip. She'd follow him anywhere he'd go and do anything for him. To her, he's her entire world. I can't hold that against her even with her behavior during this mission. The Fourth Hokage wishes for her to remain a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf and that's what she will be," Sarutobi told him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi scooped Zemaria up and took her to the hospital. Afterwards, he went to see Minato and gave him his report. He also expressed extreme concern about Zemaria. He was worried that when she woke up she would attempt to leave the village in order to track down Orochimaru. Minato thought about it for several minutes before reassuring Kakashi that Zemaria wouldn't leave like that./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Orochimaru had to have had a reason for leaving her behind. He knew full well that she'd follow him anywhere he went and leaving the village was no exception," Minato pointed out./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kakashi questioned him, "That may be true but then why? He never corrected her behavior himself when it came to missions. It's as though he encouraged it by allowing her to continue that way. If that's the case, why leave her behind? It just doesn't make sense."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato tried to end the subject quickly, "Look, no one knows what goes through his mind. Although... I suspect the only one that possibly could would be Zemaria. She's spent enough time around him. When she wakes up, it's likely that she'll figure out his reason behind leaving her here in the village. Just don't worry about it."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'll see what I can do to keep her on a good path if that's what you want," he sighed reluctantly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""That's good to hear. I just hope you didn't go too overboard with that attack of yours," Minato said worried./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""She's fine. When Lord Third and I found her, she was unconscious but her wound was almost completely healed. Either the three-tails had something to do with it or she knows medical ninjutsu that we didn't know about," Kakashi told him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"There were very few in the village that knew about Zemaria being a Jinchuuriki. And there were even less who knew about her having half of the nine-tails sealed inside of her. There were also things Zemaria had kept secret from everyone; even her own father. Minato dismissed Kakashi and decided to check in on Zemaria. To her, she was alone now. Tsunade had left a year ago and Jiraiya left not too long after Naruto had been born./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The only person she really had was Minato. He got Naruto and went to the hospital. Zemaria wasn't unconscious for very long. When the two entered the room, she looked over and then away. She thought she'd get an earful from him for protecting Orochimaru and attacking her Sensei. Doing things like that were frowned upon as a Shinobi./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Are you going to lecture me Sensei?" She asked still looking away./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""...Actually, I came to see how you were doing. Kakashi told me everything that happened in his report," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She sighed, "I'm fine..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto went to her bedside, "Are you sure big sis?" He scrunched up his face./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm sure little brother," she smiled and ruffed up his hair a bit./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I hope you realize that even if your parents aren't in the village anymore, you still have me and Naruto. If you'd like, you can even stay with us," he offered./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She closed her eyes, "Are you sure about that? I em style="box-sizing: border-box;"am/em my father's daughter after all."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He smiled, "I'll take that chance."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria and Minato went back and forth on the pros and cons of her living with not only her Sensei but the Hokage. In the end, Minato won and when Zemaria left the hospital, she moved in with him. At first, it was a bit awkward but then it started to fade away into calmness. Naruto was certainly happy about the person he saw as a big sister living in the same house as him. Of course, it was convenient for the fact that Minato had asked her to watch over Naruto as sort of his protector. Zemaria had been protective over Naruto since she save him from the nine-tails./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"When she wasn't on missions, she helped Naruto with his training. He needed quite a lot of work. Usually he would train by himself because his dad was the Hokage and almost always busy and Zemaria was sometimes given one mission after another. After three years, Naruto really had improved in his kunai and shuriken throwing as well as taijutsu. He still needed a lot of work performing most ninjutsu he was learning at the Academy./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Try again Naruto. You need to clear your mind and focus your chakra," Zemaria instructed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I know sis, I know," he said and tried again. "Clone jutsu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"One clone appeared but it was incredibly pathetic. It looked sickly and couldn't even stand. Zemaria stared at it and then at Naruto./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"And this is Minato-Sensei's kid.../em She thought. "Mm... not even close. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Six shadow clones; a Jounin level jutsu appeared around her. Naruto started to feel very inferior to her in terms of skill. He sat down on the ground and puffed out his cheeks. That was his way of giving up. Then he got a bright idea./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I know! Transform!" He exclaimed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He transformed into a very attractive female with pigtails. Zemaria's eye twitched. His jutsu reminded her of Jiraiya and seemed like something he would have come up with. She clocked him upside the head and walked off. He transformed back and rubbed his head./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hey! Come back sis! Where ya going!?" He ran after her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""If you aren't going to take this seriously, then you aren't getting trained by me," she said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He caught up to her, "Aw, come on! I'm sorry."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She stopped and sighed, "If you can make one solid clone that doesn't look so sickly and can actually stand... I'll treat you to ramén for dinner tonight."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto laughed excited, "Alright!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Let's see what you've got little brother," she smiled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He made the hand signs and tried to focus, "Clone Jutsu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"It failed again. One pathetic sickly looking clone appeared. Naruto groaned knowing Zemaria wasn't going to buy him ramén for dinner. She shook her head in disappointment. Although, she did suspect that the outcome wouldn't have changed. She also didn't want to treat him because of that result./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Instead, she decided to stay at the training grounds with him and help him out more. She showed him the hand signs to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu. With him having half of the nine-tails, he should have enough chakra to successfully perform it. It was a long shot though because of his lack of chakra precision. He did the hand signs and tried to execute the jutsu./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Shadow clone jutsu!" He groaned. It failed of course./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Naruto, calm yourself. Focus your chakra as if you're going into a meditative state. Your chakra needs to calm down as well. It's all over the place right now. Try it again," she explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He nodded, "Right. Calm. Focus." He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing slightly. "Shadow clone jutsu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"A clone appeared. "Well... at least this one is standing," Zemaria noted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He flopped to the ground disappointed and frustrated, "Man! I'll never get it right."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria laughed lightly and knelt down in front of him, "Don't say that. It takes time and practice to get these things just right. I know you'll get it."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"After another hour trying it, they went home. Zemaria made her special homemade ramén for dinner. Minato came home and smelled the delicious food waiting for him. He had told her many times she didn't have to cook but she insisted it was her way of earning her keep for staying with him and Naruto. He helped her set the table and bring the food over./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Mm, that smells so good. You really are amazing, you know that?" Minato complimented./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria giggled, "Sensei, you're going to make me blush."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto didn't take notice as he was still a kid, but there was something different going on between Zemaria and Minato. Zemaria had recently turned thirteen which meant she was getting more interested in the idea of 'adult recreations' but her primary interest was in Itachi still. After setting the table, they all sat down together. Naruto was excited and looked like he was about to drool./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Thank you for the food," they all said and started eating./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Ah man! This is amazing! I love it when you cook sis," Naruto said, shoveling ramén into his mouth./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato stared at Naruto and slurped up his noodle hanging from his lips, "Naruto, where are your manners?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto stopped and blinked a few times, "Mm?" He swallowed his food, "Sorry dad. Thank you for a delicious meal sis." He smiled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You're very welcome little brother," she said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The next day, Itachi sent Zemaria a note asking her to meet him at the Uchiha training grounds. She wondered why he wanted to meet with her. It wasn't that she minded; quite the opposite actually. She was overjoyed he wanted to see her outside of going on missions together. He had been with the Anbu Black Ops for about a year and was in her unit which made her so much happier./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She was a little nervous being even close to the Uchiha district. Fugaku really didn't like her at all and seemed like the type that would have literally kicked her out of the district for no reason. He gave her a highly disapproving look during the Chuunin exams and had acted so territorial whenever she came to get Itachi for a mission. She swiftly made her way to the Uchiha training grounds. Itachi was already there of course when Zemaria arrived. She tried to surprise him but he sensed her and she ended up on the ground on her back./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi was straddled over top of her, "Nice try."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Man, I thought for use I'd get you this time," she pouted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You should know by now that you can't sneak up on me," he chuckled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Meanie. What'd you wanna see me for?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""This," he leaned forward and kissed her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria closed her eyes and relaxed her entire body. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Itachi is kissing me. He's really kissing me!/em/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"They made out for several minutes before things began to really heat up. This was really happening; Zemaria was likely going to become a full woman. She was happy her first time would be with Itachi and had dreamed of this day for a few years. Her arms instinctively wrapped around him. While they did the 'dirty deed', Naruto was creating mischief at school with his friends Shikamaru and Chouji./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The three troublemakers were trying to ditch class again. Iruka noticed their absence and tracked them down. They were in a heap of trouble. He escorted them back to class and told everyone they had to perform the transformation jutsu again. The whole class grumbled and complained. They always had to pay for Naruto's actions; and the actions of his trouble making friends./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"An hour later, one of the Hokage's birds flew overhead where Itachi and Zemaria were laying next to each other. They had finished what they were doing and ended up cuddling with each other. They saw the bird and realized it was for Zemaria. She wondered what Minato wanted her for. It couldn't be for a mission since he was giving her a sort of short vacation because he had her on so many missions the last month./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You summoned me Lord Hokage?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Yes. There's something I'd like for you do do," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Oh? What's that?" She asked him curiously./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'd like you to do a demonstration at the Academy," he told her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She looked at him oddly, "A... demonstration?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He nodded, "Yeah. Something simple; like one on one taijutsu practice with the kids or simple ninjutsu like the clone jutsu or even transformation. Things like that. The students could really learn a thing or two from the young Shinobi with the greatest potential to come out of the Hidden Leaf village."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria blushed, "You really do flatter me, you know that?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato laughed, "I try. Will you do it?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Of course! Anything for you Sensei!" She responded excitedly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"It was set; Zemaria would go to the Academy in the morning and do a demonstration for the students. It was going to be for Naruto's age group; seven year olds. Zemaria spent a few hours coming up with a plan on how her demonstration would play out. Once Minato came home, he took over the kitchen and made dinner. Zemaria was distracted by the whole idea of doing the demonstration that she forgot about dinner even though she was sitting at the table with Minato and Naruto./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato cleared his throat, "Zemaria... are you going to eat?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She snapped back to reality, "Huh?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You've been staring into space for the last ten minutes," he giggled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Oh! I'm sorry Sensei. I guess I've been deep in thought about tomorrow," she apologized./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He laughed, "That's okay. But, you do need to eat you know."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She smiled, "I know."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria finally ate dinner and went to bed a little earlier than usual in order to be sure she got a good night's sleep. When morning came, she got up and quickly got dressed and dashed out of the house. Minato had just opened the door when she zipped right past him. He stood confused as the gust of wind behind her whooshed through his hair. Zemaria didn't want to be late./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She arrived at the Academy and reported in to Iruka Umino, the teacher in charge of the class she'd be demonstrating in front of. He explained what she'd be doing and at what point during the morning she'd be coming in at. Iruka was surprised however. When Minato gave him the heads up that he had the perfect person to do the demonstration, he expected someone... older. But there standing before him was a young thirteen year old instead. As the class shuffled in, everyone took their seats./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria was actually dressed in her Anbu uniform. Minato didn't specify a preference of clothing so to play it safe, that's what she chose. Most of the students were wondering why an Anbu was even in the classroom. Some of them were amazed at seeing on at all since they're so secretive and stealthy that you almost never see them. Iruka started the class the way he normally did. After almost an hour, he finally introduced Zemaria to the class./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Alright class, I'd like you to meet Zemaria Senju. She will be doing an interactive demonstration with you today concerning taijutsu as well as some standard ninjutsu you've already been practicing. Please be courteous to her and show her respect," Iruka explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hello everyone. The first thing I'll be doing is a little one on one taijutsu. To clear up any questions you might have, I'll answer them now. Yes, I'm with the Anbu Black ops. I'm also thirteen years old. Looks can be deceiving; I'm actually at a Jounin level in terms of skill and power. So, who wants to take me on first?" She got straight to the point./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kiba Inuzuka raised his hand first, "I'll take you on!" He smiled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria looked over to him, "Very good. Come on over then."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kiba laughed lightly and walked over. I should mention the class was moved outside to the training field they used for one on one sparring. Naruto was excited to see his big sis but nervous about taking her on since he knew how tough she was to spar with. Iruka told the two to make the sign of peace before starting. Kiba was a little big shot show off and could get a bit cocky. He had way too much confidence that he could win against Zemaria./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""This will be a piece of cake!" He shouted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You think so? Let's see what you've got," she smiled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Kiba charged at her with a smile on his face. Zemaria easily took him down with one simple move. She stood with her back straight; one hand behind her back and the other with her hand up as if to intimidate him. Kiba stood up and shook off the failed attempt to try again. He failed... again. Getting up a second time, he groaned and kept trying until Iruka told him it was enough./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Sasuke Uchiha stood up and walked over to her. He remembered always seeing her come to the house to get Itachi. If she and Itachi were both Anbu then that meant they were both powerful Shinobi. Seeing Sasuke volunteer made Naruto think about trying too./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I remember you. You're always around my big brother," Sasuke said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""So you're his kid brother he always talks about. Cute," she laughed happily./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Iruka gave the okay to start the match. Sasuke proved to be more of a challenge than Kiba but was still hot headed. In the end, Sasuke was defeated by her. In between matches, Zemaria would explain how each person failed to take her down; what they were doing wrong. Iruka picked the next person; Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru was the absolute laziest student in the entire Academy. However, his IQ was well over 200./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The match started. Shikamaru looked incredibly uninterested about the whole thing and let out a very bored sigh. He took his time and carefully calculated how Zemaria would move. She waited a minute before being the one to make the first move. This kid intrigued her. His father was Shikaku Nara; someone her mother was very familiar with since the Nara clan always helped out at the hospital with herbs and things that could be used to make all kinds of medicines./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Shikamaru dodged her attacks and flawlessly performed a counterattack. Both were the type to strategize during battles. They weren't exactly evenly matched but Zemaria did have her work cut out for her with him. After almost ten minutes, she ended upon the ground with Shikamaru's fist directly in front of her face. She blinked a few times in surprise. He did it; he really beat her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Well... that was unexpected," she finally said and stood up./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Shikamaru slanted his neck to one side and rubbed his shoulder, "Man, that was such a drag."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria stared as he walked off, "...Not the most motivated person in the class I guess."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hey big sis! I wanna fight you next!" Naruto yelled excited./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Anyone who knew Naruto started murmuring to each other. They didn't know he had a sister. But they also didn't realize she wasn't actually related to him. She signaled for him to come on over. Naruto had an advantage since he trained with Zemaria often./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He hurried over to her and they got started. Seeing how good he was holding up against her made Sasuke infuriated. He didn't think the loser was any good since he always lost to him. How could he be so good against an em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Anbu/em but so horrible against someone like Sasuke? Of course, Naruto never won a single sparring match against her but he was able to hold his own at least./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria won the match of course and after, she moved on to demonstrating how to perform the simplest of ninjutsu. The first jutsu she demonstrated was the transformation jutsu. She transformed into Iruka and then into Minato. After that, she performed the clone jutsu and made eight clones appear./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Do something cool. Like a jutsu we haven't learned," Kiba said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hm... that's up to your Sensei. Most of my ninjutsu is far too dangerous to use around here," she told him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""As long as it doesn't destroy anything, it would be fine," Iruka explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She weaved a few hand signs, "Water Style: Water Wall Jutsu!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"A wall of water appeared in front of her. The students marveled at it as it distorted her body behind it. Iruka was impressed. It took great skill to perform a water style jutsu without having any body of water close by. She decided to show off another one; Fire Style: Multi Fire Sphere as well as performing the Fire Ball Jutsu facing away from the students. The last one made Sasuke a little jealous. He wasn't able to perfect the fire ball jutsu just yet./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"To make things worse, Itachi had mastered it when he was his age. The students were impressed with her skill level and power. A lot of them thought they'd like to work a lot harder to become as skilled as her. Some even wanted to get pointers and tips from her. The demonstration was a huge success./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Iruka-Sensei, why don't em style="box-sizing: border-box;"you/em try and spar with Zemaria?" One student randomly asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria and Iruka looked at each other, "Um- well...,"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The kids started cheering. "You know, I wouldn't want to make you look bad in front of your students Iruka," Zemaria commented./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Are you saying you could beat me?" He asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I em style="box-sizing: border-box;"am/em at a level which exceeds that of a Hokage...," she reminded him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Iruka accepted her challenge in good fun of course. However, he wasn't going to go easy on her. They positioned themselves and and prepared to spar. One of the students shouted 'begin' and they started the match. They made the sign of peace and began sparring. The match was intense; more so than the ones with Zemaria and the students./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Of course, Iruka really was no match for her at all. The kids cheered him on except for Naruto who was cheering for both. In the end, Zemaria won and spared him from being flicked like she did to Naruto. The match lasted close to twenty minutes. Iruka managed to give Zemaria quite the workout too. They were both pretty exhausted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Alright everyone, that's it for today's class. You're all dismissed," Iruka told them./p 


	3. Chapter 3: From Broken to Fixed

p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The students got up and ran off to their final class of the day. Zemaria hung around in the hallway to wait for Naruto. She leaned against the wall and when the kids were dismissed, some of them made negative comments about Zemaria and her one eye being different from the other. She ignored them as she figured there would be comments about it. Naruto came out and he was with Shikamaru./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I didn't know you had a sister," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Well, she's not actually my sister. But she's looked out for me since I can remember. My dad said she's been around me since I was a baby so I've looked at her as a big sister," he explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""That's pretty cool; having a strong Anbu like that as a sister," Shikamaru admired./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto nodded, "Yeah I know!" He finally noticed Zemaria, "Hey, sis!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She smiled, "Ready to go?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Shikamaru waved to him, "I should get going. My mom doesn't like when I come home too late."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Naruto said goodbye and he and Zemaria left to go home. Minato was happy to hear from both Iruka and Zemaria that the demonstration was a complete success. After dinner, Zemaria felt something different about Minato. It was like he was hiding something or knew something that she wasn't allowed to know. As soon as Naruto decided to go to bed, she couldn't stay away from asking him about it./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""...I know there's something on your mind Sensei," she tried to get information out of him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I can't tell you and even if I could, I still wouldn't," he refused to tell her anything./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""It has to do with Itachi, doesn't it?" She interrogated./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato's expression gave it away, "How- do you figure that?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She crossed her arms, "You have one horrible poker face. Now, what's going on?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He shook his head, "You may have figure out that much but I'm still not saying."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Eventually, she backed him into a corner in his room. She was going to get the information from him one way or another. In the end, she chose the 'another' way; she charmed it out of him which meant she technically ended up cheating on Itachi. It was just lucky for her that having even one snake's eye, she was able to use it to her advantage. Serpents have a nasty habit of being able to seduce and charm another being./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""...That's so not fair, you know that?" Minato pouted in defeat./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria snickered, "I'm a trained Anbu, remember? You should have known I'd have a trick up my sleeve."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He submitted himself to her on the bed, "Hey, I thought you only had eyes for Itachi..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Um- I... well- the thing is-," she stuttered her words./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Mm-hm. I see. Sneaky, aren't we?" He stared at her as she laid over top his chest. "You aren't going to do something reckless now that you know, are you?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"There was silence. She shifted herself off of him and rolled to face away from him. Minato caught her but he also knew right away what her plan was. If Itachi ever found out, it wouldn't end well at all. Zemaria had a thing for Itachi since the first day she met him when she was almost three years old./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"They finally both ended up falling asleep. When morning came, Zemaria somehow managed to end up being sprawled out over top of him almost like she was holding him em style="box-sizing: border-box;"hostage./em Minato slowly moved around and cracked his eyes open. Letting out a yawn, he realized Zemaria was sleeping right on his chest with one of his legs stuck between hers. He stretched and made a failed attempt at untangling himself from her grasp. Unfortunately, it was like trying to get your fingers out of a Chinese finger trap./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"If he didn't get out of the bed soon, he'd be late getting to the Hokage mansion. Out of nowhere, Zemaria let out a cute yawn, stretched her arms, and randomly rolled off of Minato. He took the opportunity to get out of bed and get dressed. He felt horrible about getting so em style="box-sizing: border-box;"close/em to her like that last night. Once he was dressed, he started out to assume his position of Hokage./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Sarutobi stared at him oddly, "Hm..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He looked at him, "Um- something wrong Lord Third?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You seem different today," Sarutobi replied; knowing what it could have been./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I-," Minato started right as Itachi entered the room./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm here to report in- Am I interrupted?" Itachi asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato and Sarutobi looked at him, "No, it's nothing." Minato answered first./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi being Itachi figured it out, "I'll come back later..." He left the room./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato looked concerned, "I think Zemaria's going to be in trouble."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Back at Minato's house, Zemaria had just woken up and was getting around to gathering up her clothes that had ended up spread across the floor. Itachi went to the house and knocked repeatedly on the door. The only one home was Zemaria since Naruto had already left for school. Zemaria yawn on her way to the front door and stripped along the way./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Ow! Son of a-," she said reaching the door./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Zemaria!" Itachi was in a foul mood and his Sharingan was active./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Eh? Itachi? What's wrong?" She asked confused./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He groaned at her, "You should know full well what's wrong."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Her eyes widened, "How did-?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hm. As I thought," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""...This isn't going to end in a long conversation, is it?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi shook his head. They moved to the training grounds. Zemaria told him he could take all of his anger out on her as long as he didn't try to actually kill her. They started to spar with each other. As the match advanced, it grew more and more intense. The whole area started to change; trees destroyed, holes in the ground, small fires./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria slammed against a tree and slid down, "Do- you feel- better now?" She panted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He walked over to her, knelt down, and placed a hand against her jawline, "Quite actually."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I- didn't think you were the violent type of person," she fidgeted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm not. But I em style="box-sizing: border-box;"am/em disappointed," he sighed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Just to clear the air, I did it to obtain information on what Minato-Sensei was keeping from me about you. There has to be another way. I- I can't lose you," she reached her hand up and poked him lightly on the nose. "Boop."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He calmed down and poked her nose back, "Boop..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi and Zemaria had this thing they did. It started after Zemaria had first met him. She em style="box-sizing: border-box;"booped/em him on the nose and he em style="box-sizing: border-box;"booped/em her back. Whenever she was upset or frustrated, Itachi would boop her nose and actually say 'boop' when he did it. Somehow or another, it made her feel better. She thought that maybe it would help Itachi too./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He moved his hand away from her jaw and gently pressed his head against her forehead. For some reason, he just could em style="box-sizing: border-box;"not/em stay mad at her. She may have looked identical to Orochimaru but it was as if she was the good that was absent from him. Itachi and Zemaria wanted the same thing; the village and the Uchiha clan to get along in peace. That didn't seem to be possible though since the clan wanted to start a coup'de ta which would put the village in chaos./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""It's just not possible," Itachi said exhausted. "It's not-" his head slid to Zemaria's shoulder./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Itachi...," she embraced him realizing he had actually started to cry./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Being a spy inside of his own clan for the sake of the village had taken its toll on him. He felt like Zemaria was the only one he could show his true feelings in front of. She embraced him for quite a while until Minato and Sarutobi finally found them. They saw Zemaria was just fine and debated on approaching them or just leaving them be. Minato looked at Sarutobi who nodded slightly so he went over to the pair./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato cleared his throat, "Um- Itachi? Zemaria?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi secretly wiped away his tears, "What is it Lord Hokage?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I- wanted to apologize... for what happened between myself and Zemaria. I shouldn't have allowed it to happen," he told him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Zemaria explained everything to me after our spar," Itachi shifted himself so he was sitting next to her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Are we okay then? It won't happen again, I swear," Minato said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi stood up, "I need there to be a better solution to the issue regarding my clan. I don't want to have to kill them."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato and Sarutobi looked at each other concerned. They knew there could no longer be a peaceful solution. All of their past peaceful solutions had failed. Over the years, things had only gotten worse. The Nine-Tails' attack was the reason the clan started up once more in an effort to rise against the rest of the village and the Hokage./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Danzō," Zemaria randomly spoke./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"All three of them looked at her. "Danzō? What about him?" Sarutobi asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Kill Danzō and the problem will be resolved. Think about it; who insisted on having the Uchiha district rebuilt closer to the village's border?" She explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Mm... we can't just up and kill Danzō. He has almost as much power as the Hokage," Sarutobi said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'll do it. I know I can kill him. My power exceeds that of you and Minato-Sensei," Zemaria volunteered./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi and Zemaria argued about the subject for almost an hour. Of course Lord Third and Lord Fourth weren't going to allow her to kill Danzō either. She didn't want Itachi to be forced to leave the village and become a rogue ninja but she'd risk the same fate just to kill one person. Itachi wasn't going to allow that to happen. He and Zemaria started sparring again to settle the argument./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"The two Hokages quickly got out of their way. Minato tried to talk them out of fighting each other but there was no getting them to listen. Once they started sparring, they wouldn't stop until one of them won. Sarutobi let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes shaking his head. They just sparred with each other and yet they have energy to spare for another battle./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria was on her knees panting heavily, "Just... let... me... do this!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi was on his back trying to catch his breath, "No! You're not- becoming a rogue- ninja!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I- hate you," she fell forward; forehead resting on the ground./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""No you don't," he said and lifted his head to look at her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Jerk," she said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Butt," he retorted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Sarutobi whispered to Minato, "Are they really calling each other names?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato responded, "I think they're just doing that because they're completely exhausted now."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria crawled over to Itachi and sprawled herself on top of him. She nuzzled her head on his chest. It wasn't often at all that anyone other than Sasuke and Zemaria saw Itachi's more em style="box-sizing: border-box;"playful/em side of his personality. The two lovebirds continued with the name calling with Zemaria every so often saying she's going to do it. When she said that, Itachi would respond with em style="box-sizing: border-box;"I won't let you/em./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Should we interrupt them?" Sarutobi asked after twenty minutes./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Maybe...," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"They walked over to the pair and cleared their throats. Itachi and Zemaria stopped arguing. Zemaria rolled off of him and stared up at the two Hokage. Sarutobi told Zemaria she is not assassinating Danzō. Minato apologized to Itachi but he would have to carry out the original plan. Zemaria stared at Sarutobi with attempted puppy dog eyes./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Unfortunately, since she had one snake eye and one Rinnegan eye... she failed at having the puppy dog eye look. Itachi tried to look like he was about to cry but that also failed. Both Sarutobi and Minato had to laugh at them. They were absolutely meant for each other. Almost the entire day went by before all four of them came to an agreement; Zemaria could assassinate Danzō but they'd need a reason why she did it./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"It was one thing to kill in self defense or as part of a mission but another to kill without a legitimate reason. Minato said Zemaria could use her one Rinnegan technique to rebuild the original Uchiha District from when the village was first established after Danzō was killed. Both her and Itachi would be able to stay in the village and be happy together. No one in the Uchiha clan had to die except for those involved with the coup'de ta./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Is this plan really going to work?" Itachi questioned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Yeah. What about the elders?" Zemaria asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Don't worry about them. I'll handle those two myself," Sarutobi reassured./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi and Zemaria looked at each other worried. The plan to stop the coup would take some time as well as the one to take down Danzō since he was in charge of the Foundation and had a vast number of Anbu that did whatever he ordered them to do. While the two plans were being carefully worked out, Itachi and Zemaria kept to their normal routines; missions and training. They didn't want anyone getting suspicious for any reason. A month went by and Zemaria felt unusual. Minato noticed this change and had his own suspicions so he dragged her stubborn behind to the hospital./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Zemaria, you're in perfect health," the doctor told her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Then why do I feel different than I usually do?" She asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""That's because... you're pregnant," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato had been sitting on the edge of the hospital bed and fell right off of it when he heard what the doctor said. "Pregnant!?" His eyes widened./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria stared at him a moment, "Sensei...-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He gave her a look, "We'll talk about this at home."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato took her home and they had a em style="box-sizing: border-box;"long/em talk. Zemaria insisted it had to be Itachi's since they had consistent 'romps in the woods' as she put it. At that moment, there was a very awkward prolonged silence./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria smiled, "I made you feel awkward! I win!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato place a hand over his face and shook his head, "Sometimes I just don't understand you at all..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""I'm sorry. I had to make it awkward somehow. Not to disappoint you or anything but, Itachi really was my first," she pointed out./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""And I thought I had to worry about when Naruto would start having that type of interest in girls," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Psh. No offense Sensei but your boy is completely oblivious to this stuff. He's following around this pink haired girl who likes Itachi's little brother when there's the adorable eldest heir to the Hyuuga clan who almost stalks him constantly just to watch him train. She's so shy, she blushes every time he even says hi to her!" She told him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Really? Hinata Hyuuga likes Naruto but he's fawning over someone else?" Minato asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Yup! You asked me to watch over him so... I know quite a lot that goes on. Sasuke seems to have this thing where he sees Naruto as some sort of rival and has some minor problems with Itachi being busy all of the time," she added./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Minato's eyes shifted, "You just changed the subject on me."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She smiled innocently, "Oops?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria excused herself from the conversation. She had to go talk to Itachi about all of this. Minato gave her a few tips about pregnancy before she left. She gave him a hug and told him he could give her more tips, pointers, and advice when she got home. Minato really did care about her a lot and also worried about her a lot./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"When she left, it didn't take too long to track down Itachi. He was training like usual at the Uchiha training grounds. She tried to sneak up on him like always. And she failed... like always. She made a pouty face at him. He gave her a kiss and her whole body relaxed./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Am I that irresistible to you that you just had to come see me?" He asked smiling./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Nope," she giggled./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Hey! That wasn't nice," he said./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She snickered, "I just came because I had to tell you something."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"His ears seemed to perk up, "Oh? And what would that be?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She whispered in his ear, "I'm pregnant."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""You're-," he gasped./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"She nodded and he smiled. This was a happy occasion for them both. Itachi pulled her close and hugged her. The excitement was contagious so Itachi and Zemaria went for a walk together to talk about plans for the baby. He was a little worried about his father since the plan for the traitors was still being worked out./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Zemaria had to tell him she was a Jinchuuriki. There was a huge risk for female Jinchuuriki when pregnant; the seal keeping the tailed beast safely sealed away can easily weaken during the birthing process. After their long talk, Itachi finally asked the same thing as Minato 'em style="box-sizing: border-box;"how do you know who the father is?/em' Zemaria told him she would be able to figure it out once the baby's heart was more developed. The Uchiha clan has a very distinctive heartbeat. Itachi's was the most caring and pure of all of the Uchiha. There was no darkness in his heart./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Itachi let out a light sigh. Zemaria being pregnant would mean the plans would need to be modified. He would never allow her to be subjected to fighting; not with such a high risk of potentially losing the baby. He told her this and she nestled into his shoulder. She thought he always showed so much care and concern for her. To her, it was adorable and she appreciated it so much./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Itachi...," she said softly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;""Mm? Something wrong?" He asked./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"Face still snuggled into his shoulder, she responded, "No. I- I just- the only person before who cared a lot about me and protected me was father. Then you came along and I feel so safe with you is all."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"He held her tightly, "I see. I'll always protect you. I promise."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;"They stood together in each others embrace for a while. Afterwards, he walked her home, gave her a kiss, and went home himself. Itachi had to tell his father about Zemaria being pregnant. The child could very likely be even stronger than Itachi himself./p 


End file.
